When Bucko came to live with me...

On Friday it will be a year since I lost my big red boy.   It's hard to believe it has been this long already, as the pain in my heart feels like it was only yesterday.   

Anyway, I should continue with the story....

The first time I saw Bucko I fell in love with him on the spot.  Bucko was born to an Appaloosa mom and his daddy was none other than the famed Splash Bar, a world class award winning and producer of champions, Splash Bar.  You can see Bucko's daddy here....

http://qhd.com/horse/stallion.asp?id=10284

My friend Roy Jerde of Esko Mn has a Quarter Horse farm and an honest as the day is long horse trader.  Quotes that I can think of from Roy that first night when we stopped by to see this wonder horse,  were... "he's full of piss and vinegar", and something about "the person brave enough to run this horse".   Roy was riding Bucko in an indoor arena and telling us these things and he seemed surprised that I would ask if I could ride him. 

I only rode Bucko at a walk and a trot in that indoor arena that night but I could feel a whole lot of horsepower coming from that magnificent steed, plenty to spare under my saddle.  I could feel his spirit.  I could feel that we would be best friends, for he know right then that i was in love with him, I am sure of it.  As I write this I can't believe it was so long ago for the memory is fresh in my mind. 

I bought him on the spot.  No way was I going to walk away to "think about it", and risk losing the horse of my dreams.  I also paid Roy to ride him for a week for me, and take him outside the arena and get him going outside.  The story was, he was born on a farm to some folks that had the mother but when it came time to train baby Bucko, well...his name wasn't Bucko for nothing!  That boy could buck like a rodeo bronc!

I gave Roy $450.00 for this spunky red horse named Bucko and a couple hundred more for him to ride him for a week.  Now, this would be the deal of my lifetime if you count the fact that I got 26 years of never ending pleasure in the deal.

I don't have any photos of the meeting Bucko night.  I must have been busy over the move and everything else going on because if I had photos they would have been kept with the photos of the day Bucko came to live with me.  

I'll be back with those photoe and the story to go with them soon....

Stephanie

I Have Met The Horse Of My Dreams!

I did have a couple of horses in the past but mostly I was a horse crazy kid and this phenomen carried over into my adulthood.  My poor parents.  Dad worked with guys who lived outside of town and had horses.  As luck would have it, one of my now closest friends dad worked with my dad and we had lake cabins next door to each other.  My biggest thrills would be the days that Val would gallop her horse Rex standing up  down our cabin road when  Audrey (Val's mom,) would allow horses to the cabin for the weekend.  Val was my hero.  I worked up to standing up in the saddle but break into a trot was my limit.  I was at least 20 years too late or too chicken. 

 Those were the days that shaped who I am.  I was a country girl living in the city.  Duluth is a small city but it has city status and so I was classified by Val as a city girl.  I bet there are still times when Val still thinks of me as a city girl but  I have earned my stripes.  I am a bonafide equestrian and I understand the bond between not only dog and man, but the special bond between horse and human.  I haven't lived in a city or town sice 1981. 

 It only takes common sense to know a horse.  To know a horse is to love him or her. 

He wasn't my first horse but he was my 26 year companion

It has been over 3 weeks since I lost him.  I am still crying my eyes out.  It is so hard going outside and not having him greet me with his nickers after galloping to his feeding area as fast as he could when he would spot me coming out the door.    Life without a horse is very different than living with them.  There is something missing.  The something is huge.

Bucko and I began living together  in June 1981.  It was Memorial Day weekend when I first met my big shiny copper colored boy.  In the news at the time was the death of Bob Marley and his 50 mile long funeral procession to the community of Nine Miles Jamaica, where he was born.  It was my birthday weekend when I first laid eyes on him.  I had heard about Bucko a week or so earlier from a friend who saw him at an auction, where he was not sold.  I was living in Minneapolis at the time and packing for the move back north when the phone rang...."Hi it's me", said my friend Diane.  "I saw the perfect horse for you at an auction today and when you come we have to go see him.  If you don't buy him I will but I will let you have a chance at him first and if you buy him and ever decide to sell him you have to give me first crack at him".   Dianne already had an awesoem horse named Duke so she didn't need a Bucko as much as I did.   I was in the process of moving to a farm that was owned by Dianne's mother who was also a friend of mine.  Char had succumbed to cancer a year previous.  

I was immediately excited!  If Diane said she saw the perfect horse, I believed  her.   It had to be true.  At the time I didn't know which was more exciting!  The prospect of moving back home or knowing I was going to go see some horseflesh that was spectacular and could end up mine!

The week of the move north was met with much anticipation.   The packing and the planning and the  organizing the caravan of trucks that would move my things home to northern Minnesota combined with meeting the wonder horse had me jumping out of my skin with excitement!  I remember it like it was yesterday...

Upon my friday night arrival to my new home, as the unpacking of trucks and boxes was taking place, what I most wanted to hear about was the horse I would see in the morning.... 

More soon